Quick Links

Freeing clinicians to get back to what they love. Beyond words.

From the first word to the last line of code, Nuance is redefining how clinicians interact with clinical documentation on every level. Because when clinicians have a more natural way to capture and communicate the patient story, they have more time to focus on what matters most. Discover more.

Print, capture & PDF success stories

Okanagan School District saves $125,000 through centralized print management

Company profile

“Do more with less” is a phrase well known at schools and universities. The Central Okanagan School District in Kelowna, British Columbia, had experienced the budgetary pressures that most school districts are experiencing today. The district had been given a progressive mandate to seek cost-cutting measures in order to free up all available dollars for education.

To establish cost savings, school administrators were seeking new ways to eliminate as much overhead as possible. One area identified was prints and copies.

Challenge

Solution

Results

Centralize the management of the their print fleet for all the schools, the district saves an estimated $125,000 per year by cutting print volumes by 20 percent

Background

At the board office, District Treasurer Larry Paul realized that action was required to better understand the reason paper and print consumption was increasing across the district. A steady increase in the volume of paper and print consumption due to an increased amount of printing and copying was evident, but could not be explained by an increase in student enrollment. To understand the increase, Jon Rever, Director of Technology, was tasked with tracking usage. He also became responsible for reducing consumption.

With a focus on creating long-term economic viability and stability, Rever worked with his team to implement print management software that could reduce wasteful behavior, while at the same time create awareness among faculty of associated costs. “District printing and copying behavior was kind of like brushing your teeth with the water running,” said Treasurer Paul: “People didn’t understand the impact of their behavior until they understood the cost of over-using the resource.”

As part of the copier fleet RFP process, IKON Office Solutions partnered with Nuance Equitrac to supply a fleet of Ricoh multifunctional printers along with Equitrac Express software. During the discovery process, the Manager of IT Services, Dave Norrish, said: “We wanted a solution that would identify the high usage consumers, without having to look at a report. We wanted those faculty members to have to ‘ask’ for more copies, thus identifying them with no management effort.”

The ability of Nuance Equitrac Express to set limits on user accounts was the perfect tool. Treasurer Paul knew what the current consumption levels were per faculty member, so each faculty member was allotted a fixed budget for copying and printing, set at 25 percent below current printing levels.

Another print management software feature that made a difference to raise awareness of print costs was the “pop-up” window, which gave faculty constant feedback on the cost of each copy and print job, along with their remaining budget balance. Faculty members that use up their printing budgets can make a request for more dollars, but not before a review of their needs is performed, and other alternatives are examined.